During my holliday in Slovenia, I got the idea how to explain to have patience. I often get the compliment that I am very patient, for instance for trailer loading a horse. It also works for a lot of other things in daily life. It is the same principle that Cesar Millan talks about – the energy to be calm and assertive and live in the moment.
So the secret to have patience is to trust the procces.
Now that you can load your horse well, it is of course fun to go somewhere with the trailer. But another obstacle for a lot of people is backing up the trailer. The best way to learn is through experience, but here are a few tips that will help.
To explain it again in words:
To go around a corner backing up a trailer
Just turn the front wheels enough so the angle changes between the car and the trailer. Then turn your front wheels back the way they would be when you drive around the corner forwards.
To go straight backing up a trailer
When the trailer appears to much in one rear view mirror, steer that way until the trailer is straight behind the car again and then put your front wheels straight again.
It may seem unnecessary to give advise on how to hold the tools, but it can make a big difference to you horse. We need to be effective with our communication and, even more important, don’t be in your horses way when they are trying.
Below a short video on the best way to hold the stick and leadrope when trailer loading horses:
Thank you Michelle (who is following my online video course) for sending in this video. I’ll see if I can give some more advice.
Michelle: “I am having an extreme hard time with my Paso Finos— reason- My trailer is about twice as wide (2 horse slant load) as the ones in your videos-.PLUS mine does NOT have a ramp- which seems to be the way to go. They will get IN the trailer but they scramble back out so fast and furious.. and coming off that step seems dangerous to them. I can’t even think of closing the butt bar”
See my comments below the video.
- First of all, it is already looking pretty good!!! well done.
- Relax your body more. This will help you horse to relax as well. Body language is more energy than anything else, posture and position is just a small part of it.
- To help your horse relax more, do more (extreme) desensitisation. Swing the stick and string everywhere on her and around her, while you maintain calm and relaxed. You can do this standing still and/or moving around, until they gain more (self)confidence.
- At 0:15′ Leave the stick on her back (maybe rub), relax you body. There was too much energy from you at 0:17′
- When she’s in the trailer. Rub her and then ask her out before she does. You do this really well at 1:30′
- When the horse comes out without you asking, try to keep her on a straight line and send her back in with assertive energy. The best way is to touch her once with the stick on top of the hindquarters. Rub immediatly after that.
- Teach them step by step to load in straight and back out straight. This way they don’t feel forced in, they learn to back out with confidence and they won’t turn around when you don’t ask them too.
- About closing the butt bar: make sure you don’t doubt and don’t sneak. Rub with the bar then ask them out before they do. After a few repetitions, rub once and close the bar without hesitation. It has become a habit to come out when you want to close. Of course they think closing the bar will be the end of it, but you will convince the otherwise.
Good luck Michelle and let me know how it goes.
Eddy
I just realized that my Video Course for trailer loading is actually a mini-course in Natural Horsemanship. If there’s any way you can test the relationship and communication with your horse … it’s through trailer loading. Especially when loading your horse in situations where you actually have to go somewhere. How much credit do you have left when it’s time to go to the show or trail ride?
The ‘basic moves’ in my Video Course are exactly that – the most basic things you can ask your horse to do for you using Natural Horsemanship. And if you do it right, by giving your horse comfort for every improvement, giving him time to think/soak/dwell, then your relationship with your horse will grow stronger and stronger. Your horse will have more motivation to ‘work’ for you. Actually, when your horse gets it, when he understands that when he puts more effort in, he gets comfort sooner and longer … then he will give you his heart & desire.
Natural Horsemanship is about using the horse’s psychology. Getting him to think and understand the task. The horse will always want to know two things:
When you do my mini-Natural-Horsemanship-Course, you will know how all of this works and how to do it. You’ll be a Natural Horse trainer yourself. You don’t need to send your horse to a horse trainer. From experience I can tell you that it is usually not the horse that needs to be trained.
Now the best thing is:
Enjoy this short video of me playing with my horse. It really is about the relationship you achieve through Natural Horsemanship and the high level of communication.
In my E-book I tell the story of the mare I had in training for trailer loading.I would manage to load her using my Natural Horsemanship principles, but as soon as I closed the butt-bar she would throw herself against the divider. She would do this also while driving. After much experimenting, we decided to leave the divider at an angle and to use a long butt-bar. This immediately solved the problem. She willing stepped onto the trailer, we could close the bar and she stood quietly on the trailer all the way home.
Some horses will throw themselves against the wall or the divider while going through turns to the left or to the right. They feel as though they can’t keep their balance and this really frightens them. Up till now I have found that allowing them to stand on angle will fix this. This is the main reason for me to be an ambassador for slant loading 
Of course, you want to make sure the surface is not slippery!!! Last week a horse arrived at my place and it had fallen down. The surface of the bottom of the trailer was very smooth rubber, they had put straw on it and it had been raining and … the owner admitted, she had been going around turns to fast. Poor horse. Of course this was not somebody who had read my Ebook. She probably even never heard of Natural Horsemanship. There still a lot to be done, help me spread the information. Putting a link on your website or favourite forum would help me a lot getting more traffic. Also share my website or posts with your friends on facebook or twitter (or any other social media by using the link below this post). Thank you so much!!!
Make sure you read my free Ebook where you will learn a simple and effective way to load any horse in the trailer using Natural Horsemanship principles. After reading my Ebook, I am sure you will be interested in my Online Video Course ‘Trailer Loading with Eddy Modde’.
I have thought of a way to help you one on one with trailer loading, where everybody will benefit. Make a video recording of you loading your horse and upload it to Youtube (or another video website). Then send me a special link so I can add annotations. In return I might use it as educational material for everybody who has downloaded my Ebook. Or you have it open to public so everybody can benefit.
The video below will give you a clear idea of how it works. Thanks!!!
Any method is what you make it to be … what you look for is what you see. Trailerloading is usually a challenge. We don’t want to force them, we want to give them a choice. There’s many ways to get a horse to go on a trailer. Many are not very friendly, some are just tricks.
To make it simple: cause that what you want your horse to do/learn easy and comfortable, cause that what you don’t want your horse to do uncomfortable. It’s like the game warmer-colder we played as kids. The reason it works with little kids is that they feel successful every time they hear the word ‘warmer’. Immediately they know they are going the wrong direction when they hear the word ‘colder’. It is also up to us to make the task not too complicated. You have to ask the horse questions that they are able to answer with ‘yes’. If the horse (and dogs, children) hears: no, no, no all the time or: colder, colder, freezing, they will soon get frustrated or even afraid.
So what are you focusing on? When you ride … do you focus where you want to go (and how) or are you constantly thinking: “don’t do this, no, don’t do that”. The difference is as subtle as seeing a glass as half full or half empty. It’s what you see in it. There’s no wrong answer. There’s a natural law: that what you focus on expands. What you give attention to will grow. So it’s up to you to make a method negative or positive.
The strength of my approach, like what Pat Parelli does with horses (and Ceasar Milan does with dogs) is that the horse has a choice and a chance to consciously learn and understand. You actually work with the mind, their psychology and natural ability to learn. What is really important is that the horse gets the chance to process what has happened in his mind. This is when you give them dwell or soak time. The coin has dropped when they lick there lips. If you miss these opportunities, chances are you won’t achieve anything with this method (Natural Horsemanship) and people around you will only see the negative stuff. I see this happening a lot. People think it’s in what they do with the horse that gives the result. It is actually a lot more in what you don’t do and when to not do anything at all that builds the success.
Focus on the positive. Notice the smallest changes and reward that. The biggest reward you can give them is to leave them alone. Give them time to think about it and allow the horse to learn. Don’t make him learn.
Last week I was taken by a post from one of my friends on Facebook, Renee Porcellini.
“The consequence of civilization has taken us far away from our natural way of existing ~ not surprising there is much confusion, anxiety, depression, addiction, and a general disconnect from self. When I watch animals interact, I see them as living in the purest state of the moment – as if there is nothing else and I wonder – Is this what our distant ancestors experienced – how can I reconnect with that part of my being?”
I wanted to devote a post about this, because I believe these are the things we should ask ourselves in life and in doing something with our horses. I realize this is a website on trailer loading (… or is it). But when teaching horsemanship, including trailerloading, I find myself talking less and less about techniques. Although ‘techniques’ is what most people want the most – a trick to get the horse into the trailer quickly – more and more I am talking about the psychology of trailerloading like in my Ebook. And in my daily life I find myself more and more pondering about the truth behind all of this. What is life, what makes it possible, what should we be doing…and why. Actually, it is the science of how to be happy.
First let me make clear that I am in no way an expert in this. I have studied the subject of happiness very intensively for four years now. Many spiritual books, CD’s, DVD’s and retreats all over the world have brought me to a point to where I can say I understand it completely … intellectually. But that doesn’t mean a thing, Wisdom is doing it. I love writing and talking about it, because it keeps me on track. The habit to look and react to what is (or seems to be), is very strong. By writing about it, I keep myself on track to override the habit. I have started to dislike the word ‘teaching’. I’ve been an instructor for 8 years and when you say you ‘teach’, people expect to learn something. And there’s no guarantee that you’ll learn anything from any teacher. You learn by experience depending how open your mind is. Again, intellectual knowing doesn’t mean a thing. Learning is when you are able to do it afterwards.
So, back to the question that Renee brought up:
“When I watch animals interact, I see them as living in the purest state of the moment – as if there is nothing else – how can I reconnect with that part of my being?”
This was my response on Facebook:
Eddy:
Empty the mind ,stop thinking Every thought is about the past or the future, so the mind is active. To be in the Now – don’t think (easier said than done)
Renee:
I understand what Eddy is saying and I would like to add that although you have to try not to ‘think’ to be in the moment, I find it helpful to tune into what is going on in the present, particularly…what I see, touch, feel in my heart/soul, hear, smell…and I do think about that as it is happening.
Eddy:
Yes, enjoy the present moment. But what’s there to think about. Just ‘be’, that’s what animals do.
Thinking is just a habit, a very strong habit. And they come and go automatically. Just be in the present moment and observe what’s happening. It’s not good, it’s not bad, it just ‘is’.
But what if you don’t like what is happening at the moment? Then there will be many thoughts and it is almost impossible to not think about it. And even saying to yourself “I don’t want to think about it” is already a thought. That’s when you pay attention to your feelings and let go of resisting them. If something is happening that you don’t like, you’ll have an unpleasant feeling about it. Feelings is just stored energy, a collection of many thoughts from the past. And when not resisting, as you just notice them in the present moment, they will leave/evaporate/dissolve. Thoughts and feelings go hand in hand. You can have up to 50,000 thoughts a day, so trying to control them will seem impossible. But one feeling can produce thousands of thoughts. So by releasing a feeling, you quiet many thoughts. They just won’t come up, because there’s no reason. Now of course, the next moment, you will have other feelings come up. It depends what is happening around you in the moment.
I’ll devote another post to what you can do in situations where you are afraid or frustrated. And it doesn’t matter if this is with horses or any other situation.
One more thing on releasing your feelings. We tend to hold on to feelings for different reasons. But most people seem to believe that we should have feelings and emotions. Because when you let go of them…what is left? Will we be like a zombie? I’ll tell you what is left, and this is the message of many masters: What will be left is You, the real You. Happy, peaceful, loving, enjoying the present moment and everything in it.
Animals and also children have this ability to just be and enjoy the present moment. Adults are too busy thinking about how to control 5 billion people and save the world. But all this thinking is what got us into the trouble we’re in. We could learn so much from our animals to live in harmony with nature.
Thanks for posting Renee.
In my Ebook on how to teach your horse to load himself in the trailer I mention a few movies where they use the Power of Now. When I wrote that, I didn’t know about the movie ‘Peaceful Warrior”. Because if I did, I would have devoted a whole chapter to this movie and the message in it. That’s why I’m writing this post about it instead. I know from experience that the Power of Now can be extremely powerful. Imagine what our Horsemanship could be like when we could tap into the Power and Wisdom of being in the Now.
‘Peaceful Warrior’ is about a gymnastic with a lot of talent, but with a very big ego. The movie shows how his ego gets in his way of his goals and then he meets his new mentor. A master of Being in the Now and tapping into the wisdom and power that’s available for everybody.
If there’s anything that horses are better at than us and what we could learn from them is: living in the moment!!! Whenever we think, we are living in the past or in the future and block of the power and wisdom that comes with intuition. Thinking is just a habit, a very very very strong habit. And it blinds us. ‘Thinking’ is the ego trying to be a big shot. Trying to claim all the credit for what you have achieved, where the ego actually only limits us.
I watched it a third time last night and wrote down all the life lessons and quotes I noticed. I am sure I missed a few and they might mean something else to you than to me. The main reason why I love sharing these, it is to keep myself on track and learn to master them myself.
Life Lessons and quotes from Peaceful Warrior:
The movie sure is a must see!! Here’s a section of the movie.
This very thing – the Power of Now – is becoming my passion in life. I really want to master this and hope someday I can be a mentor like Nick Notle in this movie.
If you would rather read the book: ‘Way of The Peaceful Warrior’ by Dan Millman. And of course another really good book I recommend is ‘the Power of Now’ by Eckhart Tolle.
